Guys hit back-to-back aces in same foursome on same hole

The odds of an average golfer making an ace are 12,000-to-1, according to the National Hole-in-One Registry – imposing if not exactly mind-blowing. But the odds of two players from the same foursome acing the same hole are an astronomical 17 million-to-1.

Two Bay Area men defied those ultra-long odds Monday in Rohnert Park – on consecutive swings.

Randy Hiseley, 66, and Phil Shafer, 81, were playing with their weekly senior group at Foxtail Golf Club. Hiseley stepped to the tee at No. 6 on the North Course, a 121-yard par-3. He swung his 9-iron and watched his ball sail fairly low into the distance.

The green is slightly elevated, and the back-right flagstick was obscured by shadows. Hiseley, Shafer and the third player in the group, 86-year-old Ray Buchanan, figured the ball was either close to the pin or possibly had rolled off the back edge.

Then it was Shafer’s turn. He used an 8-iron and hit the ball higher than Hiseley did. They saw Shafer’s ball land and roll toward the flagstick – they suspected it might have gone into the hole, but they weren’t entirely sure.

Moments later, as they approached the green, course marshal Pete Peleti – who had been watching from 20 to 30 yards behind the green – shared the stunning news.

“We couldn’t see anything – we just knew the shots were pretty close,” Shafer said. “Then the marshal hollered, ‘There are two balls in the hole!’ My first thought was, ‘That’s a bunch of bull.’ But he was jumping up and down, so excited.”

Peleti wasn’t immediately available to confirm he witnessed the back-to-back aces. Andy Medeiros, an assistant in the pro shop at Foxtail, said Peleti was there at the time and the rare feat did in fact occur.

Peleti heard the cup rattle on Hiseley’s shot, so he figured that might have been an ace. He wasn’t sure at first about Shafer’s shot, but when Peleti walked onto the green he peered into the hole and saw both balls.

Here’s an even more remarkable twist to the story. Buchanan, the final player in the threesome to hit, also smacked his shot directly at the flagstick – the ball came to rest only 2 to 3 feet away.

“It was fun,” Shafer said. “The news traveled like wildfire at the course – everybody out there was excited.”

This was Hiseley’s fourth ace. It was No. 11 for Shafer, who lives on the course at Foxtail and typically plays four or five times a week.

A day later, they both were still marveling about their improbable achievement.

Yes, it has happened before. A quick online search uncovered reports of aces in the same group (on the same hole) in Kansas in June 2011, in Australia in November 2012 and by two young brothers in South Dakota in May.